Japanese GP: Honda Friday practice notes

Free practice for the Honda Racing F1 Team's home Grand Prix in Japan
kicked off in damp conditions today, with the Suzuka circuit officially
declared wet for both sessions.
Anthony Davidson completed 18 laps this morning and once again...

Free practice for the Honda Racing F1 Team's home Grand Prix in Japan
kicked off in damp conditions today, with the Suzuka circuit officially
declared wet for both sessions.

Anthony Davidson completed 18 laps this morning and once again stormed
to the top of the timesheets, whilst race drivers Rubens Barrichello and
Jenson Button completed just one installation lap on the rain-soaked
circuit.

This afternoon, Jenson and Rubens reserved their running until
the end of the session when the track was starting to dry out, but
this led to traffic issues which made it difficult to gauge anyone's
lap times with any certainty.

As a result, the Honda Racing F1 Team is
generally pleased with the progress it has made in variable conditions
and is looking forward to the improved weather forecast for tomorrow's
qualifying session.

Anthony Davidson:

"Once again, the conditions were difficult for everybody today. It was
very wet this morning but I had a good session nonetheless and I ended
up fastest, finding a nice balance for the car in the wet. When it dried
out this afternoon, it was the first lap I have ever done at Suzuka in
the dry and it was a really good experience for me. I didn't get the
best out of the tyres that I was on for the last run but it was still a
really good fun day and I felt confident in the car."

Jenson Button:

"I didn't get much running in the session because of the weather, but
it's good to have Anthony out there putting mileage on the car so that
we don't have to compromise engine mileage. We also don't get that many
sets of new wet tyres. We didn't do any running until the track started
to dry out, then I got one run in at the end. At that time, practically
every car was on the circuit and because of the traffic it was hard to
get a good lap time. However, the car is feeling reasonably good so
generally we've made a positive start to an important weekend."

Rubens Barrichello:

"It was one of those days when everyone runs just a little bit because
that is all we can do in the weather conditions we encountered. We had
no car issues but it's difficult to see where we stand yet. We will
just have to study the data this evening and hope for more good steady
progress tomorrow."

Gil de Ferran, Sporting Director:

"It was hard to learn much today given the changing conditions, and
for that reason the timesheets are not especially representative. With
Anthony we spent most of the day evaluating which tyres were best for
which conditions and at the end he had the opportunity to run around
here on dry tyres for his first time ever. All three drivers are happy
with the car balance, so all in all a good start for our home GP."